…and because I had to go through all of last year’s photos and select some for the previous post, a lot of photos I wanted to include didn’t make the cut. So here the rest of them are, featuring the usual heroes Rambo and Sniff.

Notes:
1. Yes, I know my cell phone is crap at taking good photos in anything but daylight.
2. A short (Swedish) notice on Sniff’s doggy day care follows after the photos.
3. Paralegal stuff at the end.

Last year’s snow day. Hoping 2018’s snow day is just around the corner!

Tongue out!

Best friend Lottie!

Snuggles with big brother Rambo!

Playing with new friend Brady!

Sniff’s birthday bash, and riding the subway on her way to doggy daycare!

Remember this time last year when I made a careful prediction that I might have time for regular updates again? Yeah, those were the days.

(I’ve had so much trouble with this damn laptop, and I’m never buying an Acer ever again.)

1. What did you do in 2017 that you’d never done before?
– I quit my job.
– I was hired straight out of school (and managed to graduate despite my dog meddling with my homework).
– I went on business trips, like a grown-up person.
– I visited Malmö.
– I was a bridesmaid in one of my best friends’ wedding. (All my photos from the wedding came out blurry or bad, so the tiny photo of Kristine and me is literally the best one I have of the two of us.)
– I went to a Håkan Hellström concert, and Veronica Maggio was there, and it rained. A lot.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Complete failure on the ’update blog more’. I did buy a new gym card, though.

Finally getting my sleeping pattern sorted out after ten years of night shifts would be nice.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Sniff’s best friend Hollie ♥

5. What countries did you visit?
Croatia, USA and Denmark. Two weddings and a visit to the Little Mermaid (don’t bother).

Vacationing in Croatia made me feel like I was a photographer for Dressman.

6. What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017?
I did have a mixture of more money and limited time with dimwitted people this year! Next year I want money, fame and power – or at least new shoes.

7. What date from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Good date: October 13 – Kristine’s wedding. Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but I’m quite sure it was the experience of a lifetime.

Bad date: April 7 – my co-worker looked up and said jokingly ”It must be another states visit.” (We’re next building to an embassy.) And then more and more emergency vehicles drove by towards the city, so I looked it up, and it was a terror attack.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Graduating with (almost) top grades. Turning my internship into a paid, fulltime job.

Graudation day with Simon.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Well, I did apply for a ton of other jobs that I half-heartedly wanted, and was turned down by every single one. Not sure it counts, since I was determined to stay where I was.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yes. Back, neck, foot.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I can’t think of anything in particular. Probably my mouth guard, if you want the top most boring answer ever. And I finally went to a naprapath, and it was the best thing I’ve done all year. (Health wise.) I really recommend Naprapatiska Institutet in Stockholm.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Sniff was a true trooper this year. This is her waiting for teddy to come out of the washer.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I plead the Swedish equivalence of the fifth.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Other people’s weddings and supporting my student boyfriend. And food. Speaking of expensive food stuff, Jennie and I went to the Christmas buffet at Ångbåtsbryggan, and it was the best (only, tbh) seafood buffet I’ve ever had.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
I’m sure it’s getting old, but the answer to this question is, again, Kristine’s wedding.

16. What song will always remind you of 2017?
Sweet Child O’ Mine. Unfortunately, I must say, because I went to see Guns N’ Roses’ amazing concert, and this guy behind me puked over my seat right as this song, which is also my favorite, of course, started playing. Thanks for nothing, Vomit Guy.

17. What was your favorite photograph of the year?
I’m trying to narrow it down, but it’s difficult. Next year I should take less pictures of my dog.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Exercise. I had to stop when I injured my foot and now my Body Pump routine is completely off.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
In my own home, with my lovely family of four. Fuzzy Face #1, Fuzzy Face #2 and Simon.

December 23rd.

Christmas buffet for two.

22. What game did you play the most in 2017?
Super Mario Maker.

23. How did your creative writing go in 2017?
To be perfectly honest, I can’t remember if I wrote anything at all this year. I did some outlines for upcoming stories, but that’s about it. #failure

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Crazy Ex-girlfriend. I held off on it for the longest time, because I thought it was the 2006 movie My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Now I’m hooked, and I haven’t seen any other show that portraits BPD, which I’m diagnosed with, in quite this way before.

I also started watching Jane the Virgin, which is a nice show but nothing more. As long as I suspend my disbelief, I can get through all the ups and downs.

(Third season of Lovesick premieres today, btw!)

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don’t think so. Graduating and quitting my job really put a damper on the anger. I still hate the same stuff I always do, though.

26. What was the best book you read?
I finally read Stephen King’s ’Salem’s Lot, and it was great. I thought it would be a drag, because so many fans dislike it, but I thought it was really inspiring. It almost made me write. I also, finally, read the entire Beck series. Almost, at least. I burned through, like, seven books during the summer vacation, when I reached the last book, and since this summer I haven’t found the time to finish the last 200 pages. Figures.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I discovered nothing new this year. Didn’t add a single new song or artist to Spotify. I’m an old lady now.

EDIT: SILLY ME. I added everything related to Crazy Ex-girlfriend, of course. How could I forget?

…BUT THAT’S NOT WHY I’M HEEEERE!

28. What did you want and get?
My job.

29. What did you want and not get?
A bunch of other jobs. I also wanted to get in shape for Kristine’s wedding, but my dumbass foot put a stop to those plans.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
IT. Aside from the characterization of Bev, it was amazing. I even dared watch it in the theaters.

I also watched Wonder Woman in the theaters, and it was a positive experience, but I’m not sure I would care enough to re-watch it. The worst movie I saw in theaters was Murder on the Orient Express.

Older movies that I watched this year and really made an impact on me was Frozen (the one where wolves eat snowboarders, not the other one), No Escape (with Lake Bell) and Into the Forest (with Ellen Page). No Escape in particular stayed with me for the longest time.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I had an important job interview that day. I turned 33 years old.

32. How did you celebrate New Year’s Eve?
We spent it at home with Simon’s grandfather, ate lots of sea food, and protected Sniff from all those nasty fireworks. I should add that to the list of people I hate: people that use their fireworks days in advance, and days after, New Years Eve. Seriously, assholes. The timeframe is 23:45-00:15 on December 31st to January 1st. Any other time you use fireworks means you’re an absolute asshole.

Oh, and to the person that committed burglary at 6:30 PM on December 31st and stole our suitcases? You’re not exactly a catch either.

#NewYearsRage

#Goodbye2017SeeYouNever

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017?
Business casual. But all my clothes have holes in them, so I really should buy new ones.

34. What kept you sane?
My job.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I keep a list of people that haven’t turned out to be complete assholes in the wake of #metoo. It’s unfortunately a rather short list. So many of my favorite movies and TV shows were ruined by assholes this year, because it makes me uncomfortable to even see them on my screen, not to mention pay for their careers to continue. I’m really glad Murder on the Orient Express was a free viewing paid for my union, for example.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I don’t even want to get into it. This year was such a ballbuster.

37. Who did you miss?
I miss not getting to see my favorite classmates every day, after two years together. Even if you’re super close, you fall out of touch really fast, when real life separates you.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I didn’t meet any new people this year. All the best ones were already around.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017.
Don’t hang on for too long.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:”It’ll work itself out fine
All we need is just a little patience”

My M.O. is apparently to stop doing regular updates as soon as the blog gets a steady viewership – during this fall, more people than ever have visited the site, and I have updated zero times since that happened. Go me!

Thank you for visiting, here are some more pictures:

After a long day of shopping, Sniff likes to snuggle up on the couch.

Simon’s signature breakfast plate. Cardiac arrest.

Some of my Stephen King books. I intend to read these at some point in my lifetime.

Sniff doesn’t like it when I study…

…totally worth it, though. (Sorry, Sniff.)

Best pal Lottie visited!

First day at my internship (LiA 1) vs. Last (official) day

Sniff being super duper cute, and my camera being a total jerk about it.

Chillin’ with Simon, totally relaxed (?)

Important advice from one of Sweden’s prosecutor agencies.

Mom made me a hat with dinosaurs. It’s a bit tight.

It’s someone’s birthday! (Not hers.)

Mom visited for my birthday, and Sniff was classy as always.

Princess Sniff.

Finally, it’s Sniff’s birthday! 2 years old!

Best. Family. Ever.

At Comic Con, finding an appropriate place for an impromptu nap.

Another sound advice. ”Always be yourself, if you can’t be Batman.”

Best. Family. Ever. Part 2.

Snow day of November 9. It was a pain getting to and from work, but totally worth it:

Before we start, I’m sure you’re dying to know what happened between September and December, right? Here we go:

College, internship, university, job search leading to new job – in October I did all four of these things simultanteously, and I can’t tell you how I managed it, but I did. I aced my Legal English course, worked on my thesis, did my internship five days a week (more on that later), went on job interviews, was offered three jobs, started a new parttime job in December while also doing my internship – and most important of all: I finished my research paper at the university and finally finished the intermediate course in English.

…and it only took me ten years, for various reasons.

I’ve kept busy, but now when I only have the paralegal course, internship and parttime job, maybe I’ll get around to some regular updates again. Maybe. Moving on:

1. What did you do in 2016 that you’d never done before?
– I started on a new career path and worked at two new workplaces that were wildly different from my old job.
– Celebrated Christmas with both Simon’s family and my mom.
– Participated in Color Run.
– Worked as a bartender at Summer Burst, and volunteered for Comic Con Stockholm.
– Joined the Super Mario Maker community as a judge in Level of the Week.
– Simon and I went to Kolmården, and he saw the dolphin show for the first time, and we went on the rollercoaster Wildfire.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Apparently I said I would fight more this year – fighting for my convictions and standing my ground make it a semi-check, but I actually held back more often than I didn’t.

As I’ve mentioned previously, one of my resolutions should probably be to updated the blog more. I should also buy a new gym card when I get my first paycheck. So, two shoulds and no promises.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Not really.

5. What countries did you visit?
Yeah, still only Åland. Sniff shredded my passport, so…

6. What would you like to have in 2017 that you lacked in 2016?
A mixture of money and surrounding myself with less dim-witted people. I have a good feeling about both.

7. What date from 2016 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Probably November 9. Half the world was in chock, there was snow chaos in Stockholm, and we had the best day ever.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I’ll go with my answer from last year, including excelling radically at anything job-related. Finally finishing my damn research paper.

9. What was your biggest failure?
– Not being able to solve important conflicts – sometimes it’s better to bow out before the shit hits the fan.
– My Economics grade. Regrets and repining. CJ displeased with outcome of test results.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Whoo! No! Is this a first?

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Err… did I even buy anything this year? Living on a student loan made it a sparse year. Simon bought me some cool stuff, though, including new fancy work clothes!

I’m not really all that skilled at taking selfies, though. Who’s got the patience?

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
OMG. One day I might tell you, but for the sake of peace and quiet, I’m just going to sit this one out.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Bills.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
– All the small trips we took, daytrips and weekends and fun adventures with the dog.
– When we went to the second Bruce Springsteen concert (we went to two) and No Surrender came on. I may have been the only one excited about that out of everyone there, but it was fantastic.

16. What song will always remind you of 2016?
Apparently I listened to Uptown Funk a whole lot, but I listed that one last year as well, and also Avicii — For A Better Day and Hailee Steinfeld — Love Myself.

17. What was your favorite photograph of the year?

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Time management. Simon had to play second string a lot this fall.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Over-sleeping and skipping classes.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Same routine as last year, just add my mom into the mix.

22. Did you fall in love in 2016?
I think I went in a new direction with this one last year: Material things I fell in love with was Marc Jacobs Recruit Small Leather Saddle Bag (must have) and I almost exclusively played Super Mario Maker. Like, a lot. I tried Pokémon Go, but lost interest about two months in. I should really remove it from my phone. Stopped playing Jurassic Park Builder too!

23. How did your creative writing go in 2016?
It went pretty well this summer – Kristine and I got Seven Days a Week all done edited. I also started editing the sequel, and wrote some additional bits on other stories. I worked some more on the Swedish stories, as well. Then fall term happened, and I’ve written nothing but school assignments since.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Netflix delivered this year. Like everyone else, I watched Stranger Things (it was okay), and also Gilmore Girls (first out of boredom, and then I got hooked – A Year in The Life was the highlight of my November), Lovesick (Dylan, Luke and Evie are almost Kate, Fred and Daniel in spirit. And then there was a second season!), 24 (spent a week watching the first three seasons because hooked), Love (I love Gillian Jacobs) and Jessica Jones (who apparently suffers from PTSD the same way I do, which made some loopy scenes difficult to watch).

Aside from Netflix, I rewatched Bands of Brothers and started on The Pacific (which I need to buy). I started the year by re-watching Buffy, and a The O.C. marathon is probably due soon, too.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Just one in particular. Is revenge really only reserved for fiction?

26. What was the best book you read?
I didn’t have time to read much due to school and everything, but I read some Stephen King short stories and plan to pick up The Stand and IT (again), the latter because of the upcoming movie (and because I don’t enjoy sleep, I guess).

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Nothing new that I can tell, according to Last.fm.

28. What did you want and get?
The internship and also the parttime job(s) I applied for. Retribution!

29. What did you want and not get?
I had some things planned that had to be abandoned due to our decreased cash flow.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
I was pretty excited about Suicide Squad, because Alexandra was talking it up so much, and seeing it at the movies was great. Re-watching it, I realized there were some questionable parts in it that took away from the initial excitement. Simon thought it was boring.

Same thing with Bridget Jones’s Baby – fun to watch in the theater, but it was an objectively bad movie.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Oh, I had a blast! My supervisor arranged for me to attend an introductory course at the internship, and I spent all day being introduced to one of Sweden’s prosecution authorities.

…it had nothing to do with my birthday, really, but it was pretty awesome.

Simon took me out for dinner afterwards!

32. How did you celebrate New Year’s Eve?
We had a great time at home. We invited Stefan and Simon’s grandfather, and we made dinner, lots of food, played Bingolotto, board games and then finished off the night by scaring the living crap out of our dog.

Sniff has barely reacted to fireworks during previous years, so this year we brought her outside, and now she doesn’t like fireworks anymore – we have firework-less plans for next year, though, and Sniff is a trooper who got over it almost as soon as we got home again.

Sniff ain’t afraid of no fireworks – yet.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2016?
First half of the year was sweatpants-heavy. Second half was fancy business clothes galore. I plan a mixture of the two during next term (sweatpants in school, fancy at work).

34. What kept you sane?
Family and friends, boringly enough.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Don’t know about ’fancy’, but I got really into watching The Creatures, Cow Chop and UberhaxorNova – it faded somewhat during this fall when I didn’t have time to watch, but both Simon and I watch Super Mario Maker streams regularly, especially CarlSagan42, Whitehawke, ryukahr and one of my fellow LotW-judges gratoffie, who recently started streaming. (Just google the others.)

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I followed the presidential election, but didn’t get too invested in it, which was a good thing.

37. Who did you miss?
My friends, particularly Jennie and Kristine. I spent all year focusing on school and work. Made up for it a bit during the summer, though.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I met A LOT of new people, thanks to my internship and my new job. I really like my new bosses/supervisors, and co-workers. Online-wise, I really like all the new people I’ve met through the Super Mario Maker community, almost all my free time was spent on Discord and Twitch.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2016.
Don’t waste your time on the wrong things. I spent ten years struggling to get somewhere or receive some recognition, and managed to achieve those things within two months after I switched my focus to another sector. If you’re not wanted somewhere, try your luck somewhere else. It’s not you, it’s them. [/cliches]

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
I went to three concerts this year, all amazing and all very different: Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Kent. Sorry, English readers, but this year will be a Swedish song.

To continue on a similar note: Stockholm University realized they made a mistake with my gradepoints and docked an additional three points from my final grade. So now I don’t have a complete curriculum and have to retake the ENTIRE Linguistic Survey and Language Proficiency course AND write another comprehensive linguistics essay. I tried pointing out to the administrator that I’ve already done this TWICE before, but she can’t find my records, the attendance list OR the essay – which isn’t her fault at all, but it does make me grumpy.

I even sent her proof that I attended the lectures and seminars, since I recorded them all with my phone and kept the recordings, but it’s not enough to let me pass the course. Also understandable, but man oh man, do I not have time to do all that again. I’m probably most upset about them failing to add up my points correctly in the first place, because I could have fixed it back in 2011 if I’d known about it.

So it seems that my only option now is to attend three required seminars, write another essay and combine this with my current paralegal workload and later on my internship. Hopefully it’s attendance-only, and doesn’t include oral presentations or group assignments or any other after-school activities.

I really do want a Bachelor’s Degree in English, too, or I wouldn’t bother to complete this fracking course. Goddamn my Type A personality.

@campciabatta

"My life tends to - literally -
happen to the cliché beat of Don't Stop Believin'.
Sometimes it's a sign from a high power;
sometimes it just meant I got up on stage and performed it in front of hundreds of people."